engwish

Hey Josh, You're also my first CCT. It went okay, but I kind of half-assed the SoP - since it was my earliest deadline, it caught me a bit off guard... How'd yours go?

Allisont, your chances look pretty solid for Emerson - I think you'll be a shoe-in. USC looks promising too, but probably not as in-the-bank as Emerson...but then again, what do I know. Good luck!

I'm in the same boat...well, half of that boat. A dinghy? My 1.5 UG years at grade-eschewing Hampshire College will ensure that AdComs will see my app as a chore, what with the evals, SoP, writing sample, etc... This is a good forum.

OP: I, too, am starting my SoPs. For what it's worth, fuzzylogician and jacib are echoing everything I've been told by profs and graduate friends. If it helps, some even offered some strict guidelines: If it says 1000+ words, do 1000. If it says 1000 words, do 750. If it says 2-3 pages, do 2. If it says 500 words, you better find the 500 best words on that messy Word doc! That is, include only the most relevantly titillating information; I think it's a general rule that SoPs, especially the shorter ones, are largely used to judge an applicant's ability to whittle a surplus of information (like "your life") into its most pertinent essentials, and to present those essentials with insightful brevity. Anyone can do research, but few can identify and present their most salient findings in a concise and engaging manner, and it's that skill that'll help your app climb toward the top of the stack. Additionally, AdComs will certainly be reading loads of SoPs that not only reach their limits but even extend past them, so be assured that they'll be grateful to see that you know how to edit yourself. For those unhelpful schools that didn't indicate any word or page counts, it never hurts to e-mail them. The onus is on them, not you, to set the parameters of the SoP, even if their intention is to see how you perform without guidelines.

Funny, I've been browsing these forums for about a month but haven't formally joined until tonight. I say funny because this place has been helpful and encouraging at its best, and informative and useful at its worst -- it can never hurt to get a clearer picture of your peers and future colleagues, even if they aren't, in fact, collegial. As coyabean and socialcomm pointed out, gradcafe's lowest moments (remarks that veer over the line of friendly banter, inconsiderate posters whose interests include only their own apps, downright insults) are still leagues above the general nastiness that pervades most law school and MBA forums. If nothing else, it may help to remember that posts aren't simply read by those in the immediate community, and that the anxieties expressed here may be helping to quell those of thousands of Googling readers. Like rwfan88, I wish I'd discovered this site sooner (though my own deadlines are largely in Feb, suckers!). In short: "Don't ever change."

Hey guys. Longtime reader, first-time poster... Really, I just wanted to jumpstart this thread for Fall 2010 applicants. I see that it has already been revived to some extent, but I hope that more of us media studies/mass comm people will come out of the woods, especially as the full swing of application season approaches. And, why not, you journalism kids can join in too. JK, J-schoolers, JK.... Is anyone else applying to MA programs? Specifically to NYU's MCC, Georgetown's CCT and Temple's BTMM programs? Or perhaps to the less acronymous programs at The New School, Boston University or Syracuse? Or, dare I ask, to VCU's Brandcenter? (Don't feel bad if you say yes; I'm living proof that there are, indeed, "pure creatives" that peruse this site. Unless, of course, I'm the exception that proves the rule.) Let's help one another in overcoming the raised eyebrows of our humanities professors, or, perhaps more pressingly, in combatting the unchecked hubris of those other applicants in the "more traditional" fields of study.